


Intent and Will

by valravnsown



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M, Martial Arts, Not Blaine or Klaine Friendly, Oblivious Blaine, One-Sided Attraction, One-Sided Relationship, Post-Season/Series 02 AU, Referenced Masturbation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-07
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2018-03-06 12:14:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3134087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valravnsown/pseuds/valravnsown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A second season AU. Rated for references to sexual impulses, non graphic descriptions of sexual impulses, language, and a few other things I've probably forgotten. The Winter Club Fair at Dalton Academy helps Kurt reconnect with some of his old interests. This gets more than one person at Dalton to re-evaluate just how they see him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The day of the Dalton Winter Club Fair always was on the first Saturday after winter break ended. While many students had chosen their extra-curricular activities in the fall, some changed or went out for new ones in the spring. Thus there was the fair, giving students a picture of what else might be out there. It was also one of the best chances to catch up with each other and detox from the first week of classes. Blaine sat behind the Warbler’s Sign Up table, lamenting the fact he was on longer Mindanao, and out of the winter cold. The only thing that was good was he would be meeting Jeremiah for coffee as soon as this was over. Blaine smiled to himself and then turned that smile of Zaheer Ibrahim as he signed up for an audition in the following week.

“Thinking about a hot date?” Nick asked as he leaned down and signed his name to the 3:15 time slot on Monday for his audition.

“You know it,” Blaine replied easily. 

“Who is it this week? Finally going to take pity on Hummel?”

“Kurt and I are just friends.”

“So you keep on saying.”

“I haven’t spoken with him since December.”

“Kind of hard to do when you were off over 10 time zones away. I didn’t see his name of the sign up sheet, has he not come by yet?”

“No, but the morning is young and he had to go back to Lima for that Friday night dinner thing he does with his parents.”

“He just became a boarding student and he still goes back to Lima once a week? That’s got to be hell for gas.”

“I guess. See you tomorrow for the Halo Tournament?”

“Bet on it,” Nick said with a wink as he walked away. The ‘Halo Tournament’ had been the code word the Dalton Fight Club had started to use when they had wanted to meet. It sounded innocent enough, and with the number of different gaming systems of Dalton’s Campus, no one got too suspicious when the Dalton Fight Club declined invitation to one of their ‘Halo Tournaments’. Blaine was personally looking forward to the next round of fight club. Perhaps Nick might sweat so much that he would be able to see through the wife-beater he wore…

The sound of a high laugh followed by rapid-fire French caught Blaine’s ear and prevented a tent from growing in his pants too much. He looked over to one side, and down the row Kurt was bent over the table for Dalton’s French Society, holding an easy conversation with Bernard Chevalier. Blaine thought he remembered Kurt at one time telling him that he enjoyed French. In the insanity that had followed Kurt’s transfer, Blaine hadn’t been surprised Kurt had missed out of finding the French Society. He was only half listening though. Languages had never been his strong suit, especially when the speakers were conversing as quickly as Bernard and Kurt.

“Well hello there,” a low tenor voice said, with a little bit of a growl at the end. “You must be Blaine, I’m Sebastian,” the other boy continued as he leaned across the table, signing his name with flourish on one of the Tuesday slots.

“Yeah, I am. Nice to meet you,” Blaine said flashing what he thought was his best smile as he looked into a pair of gray green eyes behind hair styled close to perfectly. When Sebastian extended his hand, Blaine took it, shivering just slightly at the way Sebastian’s fingers moved directly to the pulse point on his wrist. The smile on Sebastian’s lips was definitely that of a predator, and Blaine felt the tip of this tongue against his lips without having made the conscious decision to lick his lips. 

“I can see why the council chose you to sit behind the table. With that smile of yours you could tempt even the straight boys,” Sebastian said with a wicked grin. Blaine felt himself flushing and began to stammer for a response.

“See you later, Tiger,” Sebastain said as he stood up and walked from the table, but not before he shot Blaine a last wink. As Blaine gathered himself he failed to notice that Kurt had seen everything and rather than walk directly to the Warbler table had headed to a table where a pairs of Sai, Tonfa, Butterfly Swords, and even Wushu Fans were crossed. Blaine didn’t notice the shock on Ryan Cho’s or Ian McNamara’s face as Kurt began talking with them. What he did finally notice was the look of respect on both their faces as Kurt gave them a bow from the waist, his left palm resting on the knuckles of his right fist. He failed to notice the determination in Kurt’s eyes as he walked to the table and signed his name right under Sebastian. 

By the time Blaine had collected himself enough to ask Kurt about his winter break, Kurt had already moved on, talking with Ciaran Jones and Xavier De La Vega at Mock Trial. Blaine wondered why Kurt was making an effort to join so many extra curricular activities. After all, Kurt was only a sophomore. He shouldn’t start worrying about the college process this early. However, he decided not to focus on Kurt, nor what he was doing as Flint Wilson approached with a broad smile on his face. Blaine smiled back, and soon the two boys were exchanging stories about the tropical locals in which they had passed their holidays. 

Early the next morning, Blaine was awakened from his rather erotic dream about Jeremiah sucking him off on a display window in the GAP by the ringing of his phone. He groped for it blindly and found it buzzing by his bedside. “What is it?” he asked, his voice still thick with sleep 

“Dude,” it was David’s voice, and he was entirely too excited for whatever ungodly hour it was, “you have to get to the old gym now.”

“Why?”

“Just move your lazy ass,” David commanded before he hung up. Blaine slid on Cooper’s old Carnegie Mellon Sweat pants and didn’t bother fixing his hair as he slid on his sneakers. The last time David had been this excited was just after they had met and there had been a Maserati in the parking lot. Blaine wondered what it was this time, half absently as he jogged through the mostly empty hallways. People were either still asleep or perhaps already up. He knew that the soccer team was already starting conditioning and wondered if David had invited him to see the legendary winter streak.

“Where are you headed Tiger?” A slightly familiar voice came from behind him.

“Sebastian,” Blaine began as pleasantly as he could.

“Not running off to see a special someone?”

“Single.”

“Good,” Sebastian said with a leer as he moved a little bit closer. Blaine had turned though and pulled his vibrating phone from his pocket. He ignored the tone in Sebastian’s voice as he read a four word text from David, and sighed before he broke off into a run.

“What are you running towards?” Sebastian asked as began to jog a little.

“Don’t know, but apparently I won’t believe this,” Blaine shot back over his shoulder, wishing he hadn’t indulged in as many Mocha Sandwiches as he had over the break. Finally arriving at the gym, he saw David tapping his foot nervously. Before Blaine even had a chance to catch his breath, he was pulled by his wrist into the gym where he stopped breathing all together. He didn’t hear the door open behind him or Sebastian’s own breath catch in his throat. Instead he saw Kurt in mid air, wearing black silk, left arm out stretched and a curved sword held in his right, the curve of the weapon facing towards the ceiling.

Kurt was oblivious to the crowd by the door as he landed in a crouch, tip of the sword now point past his arm. He held the pose for a quarter of a second before his left foot shot behind his right and the blade swooped around his body, over his back, and head before sticking outwards and downwards with a whipping sound. Blaine stood transfixed as Kurt continued to move rapidly, the look of concentration, focus, and determination was not something he had seen before. He knew Kurt could be stubborn and that his eyes might flash, but this facial expression had taken that flash of the eye and applied it to the whole face. No matter how his body twisted and the sword flashed in the air, the look of concentration never left Kurt’s face, not even when he jumped up and his trailing foot shot back into a kick as he extended the sword in a rapid stab before he landed, spinning, movements too fast for the eye to catch. 

The form continued, and Kurt’s movements were liquid smooth with impeccably crisp footwork. The only time he had seen something close to this was watching his cousin Eduardo who practiced Wushu, but Eduardo’s movements were never so crisp or so perfectly controlled. The wooden sword Eduardo had used in his practice had never seemed as much a part of his arm as the flashing blade now resting against Kurt’s palm was a part of him. Kurt moved seamlessly from the low stance, left shin resting on the ground by pushing his center higher and upwards before he rocked back and upwards, the curved sword swooping (what seemed to Blaine) dangerously close to Kurt’s occipital lobe.

“Told you that you needed to see this,” David whispered as Kurt entered another impossibly low stance, right leg extended so far that there were only inches between it and the ground. From there it was only a matter of seconds until the pattern closed, Kurt standing and transferring the sword from his right hand to his left with the same fluidic style he had used during the entire demonstration. “You missed him do some sort of crazy circle walking thing in which he spun and hands moved so fast I would have sworn that it was a different Kurt.”

“Where did he learn to do that?” Sebastian asked. Blaine had completely forgotten about him. His tone was as awestruck as Blaine felt.

“I don’t know,” Blaine answered simply. If Kurt was capable of doing that, of executing moves like that, he had a hard time imagining anyone, even Karofsky intimidating Kurt. The look on Kurt’s face alone would have been able to turn away anyone. Kurt now sitting on one of the bleachers as he watched Brain den Adel began a pattern. Blaine was still trying to work through the cognitive gap between the Kurt he had seen moving on the floor like he belonged in some sort of action movie and the high spirited Counter-Tenor who had dared to audition with a solo from Evita. He couldn’t make the connection. Sebastian however had moved from the small knot at the doorway and strode over to the bleachers with no hesitation at all. 

Blaine had connected himself enough to see the way Sebastian leaned into Kurt’s space and the cool reserve with which Kurt responded to the other boy’s introduction. He saw as the predatory leer on Sebastian’s face transformed almost instantly to a smile of delight and the way that his hands began to become animated. Kurt’s expression changed to from careful neutrality to pleasant surprise and mild amusement. Kurt stood and made a gesture with his hand and the two of them walked off, as not to disturb Brian as he went through his routine. Blaine watched in amusement as Kurt nodded to one of Sebastian’s questions and the animation in Sebastian grew ever more intense. Brian den Adel finished and Ryan Cho took the floor. Kurt and Sebastian though kept on talking. 

It took another three members of the Dalton Martial Arts Club Before their conversation wound down. When it did, Sebastian rested his hand casually on Kurt’s back as they walked towards where David and Blaine stood. Kurt shrugged it off lightly, but Sebastian rather than seem irritated about it just chuckled slightly, gave Kurt's shoulder a friendly half shove, and sent a sort of half salute before he walked towards Blaine and David.

“So did you find out where Kurt learned all that?” David asked as soon as Sebastian had returned to the group.

“His mom was Elizabeth Stowell,” Sebastian explained simply.

“Who?” Blaine asked.

“Liz Stonewall?” Sebastian tried raising an eyebrow. Blaine shrugged in reply. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but he wasn’t able to place it. David on the other hand had a look of astonishment on his face.

“You know,” David said after a long pause, “I can kind of see it.”

“You really can,” Sebastian said as he turned his head back to look at the bleachers.

“Who is Liz Stonewall?” Blaine asked, still trying to figure out what was going on.

“You, my friend,” David said as he put a hand on Blaine’s back, “have much to learn, and it’s high time for you to be educated. Don’t worry though, you’ll be free before you have to go to your Halo Tournament.”


	2. Chapter 2

Over the next three hours or so, Blaine watched as a slightly built woman with Kurt’s hair, cheekbones, and porcelain skin spun around punches, struck so fast that Blaine wasn’t sure if he saw her palms, and generally put boot to ass. There came one scene where she spun one male aggressor to the ground and used a trailing foot to kick the jaw of another attacker. Blaine had never seen anyone move like that and didn’t know what to think when she rolled with a punch and spun to deliver a harsh chop to the back of an opponent’s head.

“This is Kurt’s mom?” he asked.

“Yeah, that’s Liz Stonewall,” Wes said. He had joined the trio after David had called him and told him of a Stonewall Marathon that was going down. The ending credits complete with a heavily synthed 80’s pop-song started playing, and Sebastian ejected the DVD before he leaned back in the uncomfortable chair that Dalton provided in each of the student dorm rooms. 

“Pretty badass, no?” David asked, sipping from an open soda bottle, his third so far. Despite all of his involvement with the Dalton Fight Club, Blaine had never seen anyone move the same way that Kurt’s mom did. At first he couldn’t believe that the petite movie star shared any relation to the newest member of the Warblers. However it only took a trip to her Wikipedia page to verify that Elizabeth Hummel née Elizabeth Stowell had been the star of (or at least acted in) no fewer than 10 action films.

“Vintage Liz Stonewall is always badass,” Sebastian said. Blaine didn’t need to turn his head to know that the other boy was smiling.

“How did you know who she was?” Blaine demanded.

“Living in Paris, I didn’t have many options of English language films. One of my regular partners had a collection of her DVDs and we came up with the Liz Stonewall drinking game,” Sebastian offered simply. Blaine felt a flush creep up his cheeks, imagining Sebastian naked with another boy, swapping alcohol filled kisses. Even as in love with Jeremiah as he was, the thought was enough to give Blaine the beginning of an erection. 

“Don’t go any further. As your Hall Monitor, I’m happier off not knowing,” Wes said as he raised his hand.

“How about you David, when did you first hear about Kurt’s mom?” Blaine redirected, trying to will his hardening cock to softness.

“I have three older sisters, all of whom are or were Tomboys. They went through a Liz Stonewall phase, and I’m thankful for it,” David said.

Blaine turned to Wes who just shrugged. “Saw some sort of article about under-rated action movies on Buzzfeed about a year ago. One of Liz’s films was on the list. Since then I’ve been a big fan,” he explained. Blaine looked back at the DVD cover where Kurt’s mom was placed back to back against someone who looked a lot like Kareem Abdul Jabbar. How had Kurt kept this from him, Blaine asked himself? Granted, there was a lot he didn’t know about Kurt’s family, but still, he would have thought that Kurt would have volunteered the fun fact that his mom had been an 80’s action movie heroine. Then another question came to his mind.

“If Kurt can do even half of what his mom could, why didn’t he fight back?” Blaine asked of the room. Sebastian stopped leaning back in his chair, Wes stopped texting his girlfriend, and David put down the by now empty soda on top of Blaine’s unopened chemistry book. The silence hung in the room for a moment, almost solid, as much a part of the conversation as the exclamations of surprise and enjoyment that had happened during the movie.

“I think you might want to ask Kurt that yourself,” Sebastian was the one who responded. The way he said it made Blaine think that he perhaps already knew the answer. He felt his fist balling up the robin’s egg blue sheets of the bed he was seated on. Sebastian had only known Kurt for less than a day, and somehow he already knew more about Kurt than he did. How on earth was that fair?

“I guess I should,” Blain said in a tight voice, “now if you guys don’t mind, I have to get ready for my Halo Tournament.” He stood up and left the room. Behind him he heard the sounds of a third movie starting, the muzak fading as he began to run towards where the fight club would be. For the first time today, he was grateful he hadn’t changed out of Cooper’s old college sweats, he wouldn’t mind in the least if they got a little grimy.

The first Fight Club meeting of the semester was called short before he even had a chance to get into the ring when Henry Peterson gave the signal that he saw one of the security staff coming. Blaine jogged away, texting his frustration in a flirty message to Jeremiah. He knew he might not get a response, as Jeremiah was most likely working. Putting his phone in his pocket he sat in front of his computer and began searing for YouTube clips featuring Elizabeth Stowell. 

The next day was the first day Blaine could remember where Blaine didn’t see Kurt at breakfast. Normally, all he would have to do was turn his head and he would have found the slighter male at his side in the queue waiting for fruit or oatmeal. Instead this morning, Kurt was nowhere in sight. Blaine shrugged it off. Perhaps he had overslept. Instead, he looked over his conversation with Jeremiah and then had a short conversation with Trent about songs he might want to audition with. It was the easy sort of conversation, and Blaine enjoyed it, suggesting that Trent might want to move away from Neil Young and might be better off with either The Rolling Stones or The Clash, groups that were easier adapted to Acapella. 

Morning classes (European History, Spanish III, and a double period in Geometry) passed without any sight of Kurt, but that was to be expected. The only class Blaine shared with Kurt was Music Theory, and Music Theory wouldn’t meet until tomorrow. At lunch, Blaine was only a little surprised to see Kurt sitting next to Ian McNamara, his head angled, not seeing anyone around him. It was obvious he was deeply involved in whatever conversation they were holding. The only break in their conversation was when Ryan Cho sat opposite both of them, and then the conversation shifted so that it became an intense three-way talk. Over the din of the cafeteria, Blaine couldn’t make out what they were saying to each other. Instead of trying to disturb the conversation Kurt was having with the two heads of Dalton’s Martial Arts Club, he waited off to the side. 

Only when Kurt stood did Blaine also stand, and he followed him quickly out of the cafeteria. In the relative quiet of one of the hallways he tapped his friend on the shoulder. Kurt turned and offered Blaine a polite smile. There was something different in it though. Blaine wasn’t able to place what it was exactly, but he knew there was something different in the smile. He just shrugged it off. If it was important, he would have been able to place it instantly. “Kurt, I saw you yesterday,” Blaine began.

“You did, when?” Kurt asked in way of response, a slightly puzzled expression becoming present on his face.

“You mean you didn’t see David and I at the door of the old gym?”

“Not when I was going through my form,” Kurt responded with a slight shrug, turning his face towards the hallway, and giving Blaine a view of his profile, “When I’m doing my forms, I enter the zone, and tune out everything around me. After I met Sebastian, I wasn’t really paying attention to the door.”

“Oh,” that was all Blaine could offer. He supposed that was natural enough. Sebastian had that sort of magnetism. Blaine had felt it in the two conversations they had held with each other, and to be honest Blaine was looking forwards to seeing the other boy perform tomorrow. Although he wasn’t part of the Warbler’s Council, one of the perks that came with being the lead soloist for as many of the songs as he was that he got to sit in on the auditions. However he shook himself from the thought and turned his mind back to the conversation at hand. “If you could move like that, why didn’t you fight back?” Blaine blurted out. 

Kurt sighed and turned back to him, his face showing signs of fatigue, as if he had been asked this question more times than he would have cared to answer. “The first thing my mother taught me besides how to walk the circle was that I shouldn’t advertise my skill. It would make me even more of a target,” Kurt said slowly.

“What do you mean? If people knew you could fight…”

Kurt gave a slow sigh, effectively cutting Blaine off. There was a beat of silence, but only that. “I was already known as the gay kid, even before my classmates knew what gay meant. If they knew I was a martial artist, then it would have drawn an even bigger target on my back. More people would have wanted to fight me or push me around because they might have expected me to fight back. By not fighting, by keeping my practice to myself, I reduced the chance for others to know that about me. If it had ever grown serious, if I had thought that Karofsky was going to follow through with his threats, then I would have pushed back. However, that would have invited more problems for me. Besides, with my skill level, I’m dangerous if I fight. I could seriously hurt someone else, and I don’t want that on my head,” Kurt answered.

Blaine still wasn’t sure if he understood, but he nodded as if he did, just so he could keep the conversation flowing. The look on Kurt’s face wasn’t one Blaine understood, but much like the difference in Kurt’s smile, he put it on the back burner. If it was important, Blaine told himself, he would have known what it meant instantly. 

“Have you decided what you’re going to audition with?” Blaine asked, trying to steer the conversation back onto ground where he knew he might still have a fraction of footing. 

Kurt offered a sly grin, and there was a light in his eye, “You’ll find out tomorrow. I was actually on my way to work with Sebastian on it,” Kurt said and with that, Kurt turned an walked down the hallways, Down the hall, Blaine could see someone come out from a doorway and rest an easy hand on Kurt’s shoulder. At this distance, Blaine wasn’t able to see the expressions on their face, nor hear what they said to each other. What he did hear though, even if distantly was the unmistakable sound of Kurt’s laughter. 

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly enough, and Blaine was more or less successfully able to put what had happened in the afternoon out of his mind. In the Study Hall period Dalton gave to its students before the afternoon activities were scheduled to begin, Blaine decided to head to the library, knowing he was going to head to the folios of sheet music. He knew his slot was waiting for him in the Warblers, but that was no reason not to put on a showstopper of a performance. As he walked through the forest of tall shelves he came to an aisle between the rows with a table. At it sat two boys who were having an intense, if low volume discussion. The flow of the language told Blaine they were speaking one of the Romance Languages, and he guessed it was French. 

He looked down for a moment and saw Kurt’s face with the same sort of determination he had shown when he was going through his pattern, hand moving rapidly. Opposite him sat Sebastian, an equally hard expression on his face. When Kurt finished whatever point he was making, Sebastian fired back rapidly, his fingers tracing a pattern through the air. The two of them were oblivious to Blaine as he watched them go back and forth, a copy of Flaubert’s _Madam Bovary_ sitting between them. Blaine shrugged and decided to head over to the folios of music. He figured that Kurt was finally trying to get out of his shell and make Dalton more a home, and that could only be a good thing.


	3. Chapter 3

When Blaine auditioned, he puts his all into Arcade Fire’s “My Body is a Cage”, and as he did so, he imagined himself singing to Jeremiah. The round of applause he got as the song comes to its end, the looks on Wes’, David’s, and Thad’s face were enough to tell him he has successfully gotten his position as featured soloist back. Of course, he texted the happy news to Jeremiah immediately, although he still hasn’t gotten any response to the flirty text messages he had sent in the last two days. However being the assistant manager at the GAP doubtless takes lots of time, so Blaine willingly forgave his future boyfriend.

Whistling to himself, Blaine went back to the library to at least pretend to do some of his homework before dinner. As he went to his favorite desk, the one in the back corner near the fern, he passed Kurt and Sebastian. The two of them were still in deep, low, and rapid conversation, and Blaine missed the fractions of an inch between their fingers still on the table, resting near enough the book to provide an excuse if they needed one. He also missed the slight grin on Kurt’s lips, even with the still hard expression on him face. Instead, he walked right past them and to the table where he took out his Spanish work sheet and began to go through the 20 most common irregular verbs in the subjunctive present voice.

During dinner, Blaine sat with David and Wes and tried to get from them a sense of the other auditions. He would have to wait for tomorrow before he would be able to get to sit in on the auditions himself. They, as always, did not play things as close to the chest as they might have liked. Blaine heard of Zaheer’s audition with an Arabic folk song, and of Trent going with a rendition of “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones. Blaine smiled, listening to the account of Tom Hibbins who auditioned with “Ride wit Me.” He missed as Kurt walked in between Bernard and Sebastian, the three of deep in conversation. He missed the way in which Bernard’s arm was over Kurt’s shoulder and the way that Sebastian rested a palm almost in the middle of Kurt’s spine. He missed the way in which both of the boys looked at the boy in the middle, and the easy laugh Kurt had for both of them. The only thing that he noticed was as Ryan Cho crossed the cafeteria, but he didn’t look up and see why. 

After dinner, Blaine did an hour’s worth of reading for English, still a chapter behind where he was supposed to be. It didn’t really matter though. After all, he wouldn’t need to know how to analyze a poem when he graduated and scored his first leading role on Broadway. Getting out of the uncomfortable chair and switched into the Dalton Track Pants and one of the shirts Cooper got from when he had started touring colleges. He hummed to himself all the way to the gym. When he got there, it was mostly empty save for a few people using the cardio equipment, one of the sports coaches, and a pair in the small room where yoga was offered. Blaine headed over to the yoga area, to stretch out before he working out when he recognized the figures. There was one who was standing with one leg bent approximately three foot lengths in front of the back leg was Sebastian. The other was Kurt, wearing the black silk Mandarin collar jacket he had been wearing on Saturday. 

Blaine watched Kurt watching Sebastian, who was wearing only athletic shorts and an old tank top. Kurt moved in and placed one hand on Sebastian’s back, adjusting his spine. The other hand moved to Sebastian’s hip, pushing him lower to the ground. Kurt’s hand moved from Sebastian’s hip to his thigh and made another small adjustment. Sebastian made a comment, smirking. Kurt stood and shook his head, but there was the ghost of a genuine smile on his lips before he sank into the same stance as Sebastian, except looking far more polished. Blaine decided to go off and exercise, glad that Kurt was expanding his social circle and making a place for himself at Dalton. He had finally learned to blend.

After two miles on the treadmill, Blaine got off and wiped his brow. From his vantage point he could see that Kurt and Sebastian were still in the small yoga room. They had moved on and Kurt was standing to the side watching Sebastian make a series of roughly linear movements, all in the stance that Kurt had adjusted and demonstrated. Blaine thought he remembered seeing one of the moves during the Liz Stonewall marathon, but he wasn’t too certain. When Sebastian came to the end, he waited for a moment before Kurt said something and Sebastian turned to watch him. Kurt did one of the motions from the series, one where both knees were bent and the shin of the trailing foot seemed only inches above the ground. 

Kurt was clearly explaining something to Sebastian, and based off of Sebastian’s facial expression, he was paying very close attention. Blaine wondered how Kurt could be comfortable holding such a position, one palm at his solar plexus, the other angled slightly downwards. It didn’t look like something anyone could hold. Sebastian assumed the position and Kurt got out of the stance he had been holding and moved over to Sebastian. This time, Kurt’s hands adjusted first Sebastian’s head and then his arms. His fingers seemed to linger over Sebastian’s biceps for a fraction of a second. Blaine shook his head and cleared his vision. By the time everything came into focus again, Kurt and Sebastian had moved onto the next position and there was no touching this time, just Sebastian trying to mirror Kurt’s movements.

Blaine went through his set of weights quickly, trying to put a finger on what he thought he had seen and why he thought he had seen it. Based off of how Sebastian had acted towards him, he would have sworn that Sebastian was trying to flirt with him. Also, Kurt in his experience wasn’t a very hands-on sort of guy. Why was he alright touching Sebastian and adjusting his body posture so easily? Was it part of the martial arts thing? Also, why was this effecting him as much as it was? After all, he had Jeremiah. By the time he finished, Kurt and Sebastian were talking to each other outside of the yoga space. They were facing each other, and their body language was incredibly relaxed. While they might not be touching, the distance between them was minimal and both boys smiled easily. 

“Hey guys,” Blaine said, adjusting the Emerson College shirt, hating himself for wearing one of Cooper’s hand-me-downs that he practically swam in, “what’s up?”

“ _Shee-fu_ Kurt here has agreed to teach me…” Sebastian began and then pronounced something Blaine didn’t quite catch.

“Your Mandarin is lousy Sebastian,” Kurt said easily, shaking his head, “it’s _sure-fu_ , not _shee-fu_.”

“As you say, _Shee-fu_ ,” Sebastian teased with a wink.

“What style again?” Blaine interjected, wondering just how many languages Kurt spoke.

“ _Xing Yi Quan_ ,” Kurt said slowly, exaggerating the syllables, “an English translation might be either Shape Will Boxing or Form Intent Boxing. When I was young I mistakenly thought it was Intent Will Boxing, not recognizing Intent and Will were basically the same thing.”

“Just how many styles do you know?” Blaine asked.

“I practice three primarily, _Bagua_ , _Xingyi_ , and _Southern Wushu_. Those were the styles my mom taught me. Ryan’s agreed to start teaching me Kuk Sul Won and Ian’s agreed to refresh me on my Isshin Ryu,” Kurt said with a casual shrug.

“Come on _Shee-fu,_ ” Sebastian said, his grin slightly playful as he moved himself to rest a palm in the middle of Kurt’s shoulder blades, “I promised you coffee for your first lesson. We also need to finish up that assignment for Madame Duessel.” 

“I swear Sebastian…see you later Blaine,” Kurt said and turned. This time he didn’t shrug off Sebastian’s hand on his shoulder as the two walked out of the gym and towards the cafeteria, which was the only place one could grab coffee this time of night. Again Blaine felt something that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, however he wasn’t going to complain. At least Sebastian seemed not to tease Kurt too much. If anything, he should have felt thankful that the two newest members of the Dalton community were getting along so well. Whatever this feeling was, he shrugged off as he walked back up to his room and began working through the Chemistry problem set due by Wednesday.

On Tuesday morning, didn’t see Kurt until their shared music theory class. He was shocked to see the pin Kurt wore on the lapel of his Dalton blazer. Dalton allowed students to wear the pin of any after school club they might like. The Warblers, of course, had chosen a yellow songbird. After being issued the pin, Kurt hadn’t worn it. Now he wore a pin with two dagger like weapons crossed, and as he entered the classroom, he waved goodbye to Ian McNamara. When Kurt sat down, he didn’t move to the desk next to Blaine. Instead he sat next to Cirian Jones two rows behind Blaine. Blaine would have turned to question what was going on, but it was at that moment that Dr. Geist entered and began talking about the possibility of creating a study group for the AP test at the end of the year for anyone who was interested. Apparently, the school didn’t have to offer AP Music Theory in order for students to take the test. 

The class was a blur and Blaine wasted as little time as he could to speak to Kurt on their way out of class. “You’re wearing a Martial Arts Club pin,” Blaine said, and was surprised by the tone of accusation in his voice.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Kurt asked in response.

“Don’t you want to be seen as part of the Warblers?” Blaine asked, raising an eyebrow as the cool way in which Kurt had answered him. There was no passion, no explosion, only polite interest as if wearing the Martial Arts Club’s pin was as natural as rolling out of bed in the morning. 

“Blaine as a Junior…” Kurt began

“You’re a Junior?”

“You didn’t know that?”

“I thought you were a sophomore.”

“Why did you think we only had one class together? As I was saying, as a junior I need to get more serious about thinking about where I might want to apply to college and what extra curriculars will look best as I apply. While I’m thrilled to audition for the Warblers, Ryan’s graduating this year and both he and Ian are thinking of me as a potential vice president for the club. I thought I would show some support. I know it’s not exactly rock star status, but the Martial Arts Club has at least placed in region wide competitions. That’s nothing to laugh at,” Kurt said as he turned and waved to Sebastian. “See you at the audition,” he shouted over his shoulder as he moved down the long hallway, navigating through the sea of bodies leaving Blaine standing stunned for a second. Sebastian had taken something out of his backpack and began looking over it with Kurt as soon as he arrived. 

Blaine’s head spun slightly. How had he not guessed that Kurt was a Junior? It would explain why he was so busy this semester. He just wondered where the fire and motivation had come from. He would have sworn he hadn’t seen it last year. He looked down the hall and this time it was Kurt’s hand on Sebastian back as the two walked away and out of sight, talking intensely over what Blaine could not see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At times I will attempt to render Mandarin into Phonetic English. This is not an easy task, and my attempt is very approximate. Also, yes, I know the number of styles that Kurt practices is probably too high for an actual 17 year old. However, I have met martial artists in multiple styles who were proficient in three styles by age 18 or so, so this is only a slight exaggeration of what an actual person can do. Finally, I've tried my best to keep to the actual events of Season 2, but it has been a while since I last watched, so forgive me for errors from canon.


	4. Chapter 4

The rest of the day was the sort of confused blur that Blaine had only experienced once or twice before in his life. However he was able to smile through all of it. After all, while he might not be a member of the council, he would be able to see what Kurt and Sebastian had cooked up. He wondered what the two boys were planning. He also wondered just what had drawn them close. Was it Kurt’s status as Liz Stonewall’s son that had drawn Sebastian to him? Blaine thought about that rather than pay close attention in Geometry. Blaine knew that Trent or Nick would have notes he could use when it came time to do homework. Besides, when would he ever need to know how to calculate the surface area of a cube?

Eventually the auditions came and Blaine sat off to one side along with a few other prominent members of the Warblers, all of whom were potentially members of the council next year. The thought of being seated in a position of power in one of the most popular clubs in Dalton was a comforting thought. It would certainly prevent him from being like Kurt who had somehow managed to hide so much of himself. Blaine guessed that Kurt’s father had probably been the one to talk to Kurt and try to push him into joining other clubs beyond the Warblers. After all, hadn’t Kurt been happy just to stand swaying and singing in the background last semester? Kurt had said he had never had a competition solo at McKinley. Why was he pushing to show himself now?

Blaine’s train of thoughts came to an end when Sebastian entered the room with Kurt. There was a stirring of whispers by the senior Warblers present but Kurt held up a hand, politely gesturing for silence. Despite the gesture, or perhaps because of it, Kurt’s face was set with the same determination Blaine had glimpsed when Kurt had been going through his routine with the sword. It made Blaine shiver a little bit. This was different than the wispy, far off Kurt who had sung with seraphic notes, “Don’t Cry for me Argentina.” This was a Kurt who was present, who was fully aware of where he was and what he was doing. He wasn’t thinking of impressing some distant audience or specific person like Blain had. He was, at least in Blaine’s mind, totally focused on what has about to happen, and that was something new.

“Esteemed members of the council,” Kurt began, his voice calm, level, and slightly lower than its normal register, but not so much so that it was noticeable at first. It was something you would only notice as an afterthought, a sort of echo in the emptiness. “We know this is highly irregular, however Sebastian and I have prepared a duet as an audition. If this is unacceptable, we understand and we do have separate solo auditions prepared.”

“However,” Sebastian picked up as soon as Kurt had drawn to a close, “according to my brother, Zacharias Smythe, Warbler class of 2002, he was able to audition with a duet with his close friend James, who is a brother to Council Member Yu.” Sebastian gestured to Wes who nodded, slowly and then turned to Thad and David. The three members of the council discussed with each other in low tones, their whispers filling the other wise silent space of the music room. Blaine rested in his seat uneasily. What sort of game were Sebastian and Kurt up to? Why had they chosen to audition together? What were they hoping to gain from this? Why had they not followed tradition and auditioned separately? He almost wanted to ask that question, however perhaps that was the genius of what the two had done. They had a precedent for what they were doing and so it could not be dismissed out of hand. 

“Warbler Hummel,” Thad said as he lifted his head. Kurt stepped forwards without hesitation, his head tilted slightly, but his eyes kept straight ahead locked on the council table. “Would you and potential Warbler Smythe be adverse to doing both your solos and your duet piece?”

“One moment, if you please,” Kurt responded and turned to Sebastian. Blaine leaned forwards, willing himself to hear something, anything and wishing he had a slightly better angle so he could read their facial expressions. From where he was sitting, he saw only the back of Kurt’s head and the top of Sebastian’s as it tilted to that he could say something in a low voice to the other boy. Their whispers were as hard to grasp as those that had been at the Council’s table. Their conversation was short, but to Blaine it felt like they dragged it out forever. When they finally broke both Kurt and Sebastian had wide smiles on their faces.

“Warbler Hummel has been kind enough to allow me to perform first,” Sebastian said and then turned towards Kurt. Kurt took out a small mobile dock for an iPod and within second a familiar, aggressive baseline accompanied with synth flooded the room. Sebastian rolled his shoulders, closed his eyes for a moment, and then strode forward. As he opened his eyes his hand came to his tie and he began loosening what must have been a Four-in-Hand knot as compared to the usual Half-Windsor that most Dalton boys favored. “ _I’m bringing sexy back,_ ” Sebastian began, his voice strong and measured. While he might not be able to match Justin’s original tone, Sebastian was all smolder. 

For the first time since he had auditioned for the Warblers over a year ago, Blaine felt something bordering on concern. Sebastian knew how to sell this song and himself to maximum effect. As the song progressed he tossed the tie to Thad, who caught it absent mindedly, staring at Sebastian with ill concealed wonder This was all raw sex and lust, a tone that Blaine knew he had yet to master. How could he sell sex when the only intimate touch he knew came from his right hand? Blaine was so taken into the possible threat to his leadership position that he missed the wink Sebastian shot Kurt when he reached the second bridge and sang, “ _I’ll let you whip me if I misbehave._ ” Blaine also missed the way that Kurt gave a small role of his eyes accompanied with a half grin. 

By the time Sebastian finished there was a stunned silence for a moment before the room burst into applause. Blaine gave a polite clap, not indulging in the whistling another senior Warbler, Bradley Milton most likely, had started. When the applause had finished, Sebastian flashed a winning grin and sat next to Kurt. He held out his fist to the other boy. Kurt just shook his head and Sebastian gave a mock pout before he leaned over and whispered something to him. Kurt responded with a chuckle as he stood up and rolled his neck. He then nodded to Sebastian. This time the sounds of a flute and piano filled the room, light and airy. Blaine would have sworn he recognized the tune, but he couldn’t put a finger on where.

“ _I’ve posed for pictures with Ivory Soap, petted stray dogs, and shied clear of clear of dope,_ ” Kurt began. He looked every inch the traditional cherub, all innocence and rosy cheeks. He wasn’t quite singing, nor was he quite speaking. It was somewhere between the two and from where Blaine was sitting he could see David burst into a wide smile. He obviously recognized the song. Blaine wished he could remember, certain that he had heard it somewhere. Kurt moved forwards easily as he continued all the way to, “ _Prim and proper, the boy who has never been kissed. Well I’m tired of being pure and not chased. Like something that seeks its level, I want to go to the devil,_ ” Kurt sang, belting, using his lower register and throwing his blazer off. 

He had changed from angelic to impish in one gesture, and as he continued to sing, Blaine saw the stunned faces of the council and the seed of fear he had acknowledged earlier came into full flower. Sebastian had been all sex and passion. Kurt however was all allure and sensuality, shedding the image of innocence he had established when he had last auditioned. While the piece might not be traditional for an all male choir, it showcased Kurt’s talent. While he could the high notes in a way few others could, he was also capable of commanding the lower tones masterfully. He was showcasing his versatility, his range and his familiarity with it. Here was Kurt, in charge of himself and his surroundings, every inch the showman. Blaine had kept his position as lead Soloist because few of the other Warblers had the sort of ease with performance that he did. Now both Sebastian and Kurt had shown such ease and had shown things he couldn’t do, either through his lack of experience or his particular vocal style.

The song came to an end and Blaine was too stunned to even offer a polite golf clap. His silence was likely unnoticed, as both Wes and David were on their feet, applauding for all they were worth, along with more than a few other of the senior members. Blaine was certain they had already secured their individual spots. In the stir of sounds that came as Kurt and Sebastian prepared for their final piece, the duet, Blaine wanted to object. He wanted to say something to stop what would happen. They had already proven themselves, why did they need to go above and beyond? Just as Blaine was about to raise his hand and ask the question, a quiet fell on the assembled body as a third piece began.

Blaine knew it instantly and any security he had about his position as lead vanished with the opening guitar riff. “ _I got close to your skin,_ ” Sebastian started, moving up to Kurt, resting a hand on his shoulder and tilting his head just a little as Kurt angled his head to expose his neck and closed his eyes. “ _While you were sleeping,_ ” Sebastian continued, “ _I taste the salt on your hands._ ” As he sang this lyric he lifted Kurt’s hand, his fingers ghosting over the shorter boy’s knuckles. 

“ _I reach out to touch you, the morning light disarms you,_ ” Kurt sang, opening his eyes, spinning in a quick controlled circle, fingers reaching towards Sebastian who darted just beyond Kurt’s reach. “ _Won’t you let me in?_ ” Kurt sang, all intensity, confidence, and some of the allure from the first song he had used to audition with. Blaine was shaken. How had Kurt and Sebastian managed to pull this together in 48 hours? How had they managed to work so well together? Where had Kurt been hiding this part of himself and how had Blaine not noticed it? This wasn’t the meek boy whose outfit had gotten him spotted coming down the Dalton stairwell. This was someone who had found out who they were, or perhaps had rediscovered that part of themselves. 

“ _Oh, how long till your surrender? Oh, how long till your surrender? It’s a long way for a heartbreak. Let your heart wait and bleed. Oh, how long till you surrender to me?_ ” Kurt and Sebastian sang to each other more than to the judges or the audience. They were in the moment, or at least Kurt was Blaine guessed because he had that same sort of determined facial expression as when he had been going through the routine with the sword. There was no denying that Kurt and Sebastian knew how to sell the song, and their performance sparked with chemistry. Even with his fear, Blaine could feel the beginnings of an erection coming from a mental image of Kurt and Sebastian both ravishing him. Their song had that sort of intoxicating quality. However a deeper part of him knew that if Kurt and Sebastian were to have sex with each other, he wouldn’t be a part of it.

As the pair finished singing, they turned to the council, and each gave a half bow. All three members of the council stood as they applauded and so did more than a few of the senior Warblers. Blaine thought he clapped, but he wasn’t quite sure if he did. He was all distraction and couldn’t be sure of what happened exactly. All he knew was that the way Kurt grinned at Sebastian and the way that Sebastian grinned back had something more than friendship to it. Blaine didn’t know if they had already taken those steps yet, he knew though it would only be a matter of time. He also knew his solos stood a good chance of being challenged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The songs used during the audition sequence in order are
> 
> "Sexy Back," 2006, Justin Timberlake
> 
> "I Want to be Evil" 1954, Eartha Kitt
> 
> "Your Surrender" 2010, Neon Trees


	5. Chapter 5

The rest of the week passed with an alarming speed for Blaine. Any time he tried to talk to Kurt, he seemed wrapped up in conversations with any number of other boys, but Sebastian was definitely the most frequent member of the group. Even in Music Theory and Warblers practice, Blaine hardly had any opportunities to speak with someone he had thought he knew. Kurt also didn’t seem that interested in creating the opportunities to talk with him. Last semester, Blaine knew that Kurt had sought out opportunities between classes so they could talk. He guessed that Kurt had finally made a niche for himself and no longer needed someone to take him by the hand. 

The opportunity for interaction finally came on Friday. It was towards the end of the day, and the school was alive with the sort of energy only found in high schools with the approach of a weekend. Even with the below freezing temperatures outside, the entire student body hummed with plans. Kurt saw Blaine standing outside of his room, going through his backpack, but out of Dalton Uniform. He was wearing black slacks, a stone gray shirt, and a dark colored vest. Kurt didn’t even look up as Blaine approached. 

“Hey Kurt,” Blaine began, uncertain of where he wanted to head next. Kurt looked up and gave a smile. It was the same sort of smile he had given when they had last met before the audition. It was a smile that made Blaine shiver and wonder what he couldn’t place his finger on. 

“What’s going on Blaine?” Kurt asked politely. There was something missing from Kurt’s voice, Blaine realized. Granted, Blaine didn’t know quite what it was, but there was something that was not present. 

“Want to grab coffee this weekend?” Blaine asked, trying to flash his winning smile, knowing that there was something slightly off in it. If he had seen himself in the mirror, he would have seen the desperation in his face. He wanted the opportunity to brag about having someone in his life. A part of him knew that it was wrong to do it as Kurt was almost certainly still alone, but he reasoned it was important to share all aspects of his life with his friend.

“Thanks for the offer Blaine,” Kurt began, “but…”

“But what?” Blaine asked, feeling his smile falter.

“This weekend Sebastian, Ian, Ciaran, and I are going on something of a mini college tour. They’re coming up with me to Lima, and as soon as we get there we’re heading to Ohio Northern. Tomorrow we’re going to Oberlin, Kenyon, and if we have time for it OSU.”

“And your Dad is OK with this?”

“My dad was the one who suggested I might want to start looking at colleges. When I told him I had three friends who wanted to come with me, he was happy as it meant I wouldn’t have to be driving all on my own. All he asked is that he let Finn join us once football season finishes.”

“Does he know about Sebastian?” Blaine asked, having heard more than a few rumors through the Dalton grapevine. Based off of what Kurt had told him of his father, Blaine somehow doubted that Mr. Hummel would approve of Kurt spending so much time with such a bad influence.

“He knows that Sebastian is gay. Some of his more colorful exploits, well those are for Sebastian to tell when he wants to,” Kurt answered and looked away from Blaine as he pulled his phone from out of his pocket. He gazed on the screen for only a moment before he turned his attention back to Blaine with something like an apologetic grin. “And on that note, I really do have to go, our tour is at 4:15 and we would like to get there early.” Kurt didn’t even give Blaine time to stammer through his thoughts. Blaine stood and watched as Kurt exited, hoisting his backpack onto his shoulder and waving to a boy who was heading in the opposite direction. 

Blaine stood stock still for a moment and then texted Jeremiah, trying to see if the older man might be interested in grabbing a cup of coffee or a movie tomorrow. He had to wait only a few moments before he got a work related excuse. He shrugged it off, knowing that being an Assistant Manager came with additional responsibilities. Blaine then sent a message to Nick and Aaron, two of the other members of the fight club and tried to see if either of them might be up for something. Aaron responded first, and the rest of the afternoon was divided between _The Green Hornet_ and the food court at the Westerville Shopping Center. 

Waking up sometime mid-Saturday morning, he was not really shocked to find a picture of Sebastian, Kurt, Ian, and Ciaran posted on Facebook. In it the photo, the four were posed around the Ohio Northern University sign. Kurt was draped across the top of the sign wearing a pair of sunglasses, Ian and Ciaran stood to either side with their arms crossed clearly trying to channel a pair of movie gangsters, and Sebastian stood behind Kurt, cocking one eyebrow. Blaine missed the way that Sebastian, was slightly bent, resting one of his hands on the sign right behind Kurt. Blaine ‘liked’ the photo and then decided to make the most of his Saturday by going to the gym.

When he had come back, showered, and masturbated, there were a few more photos posted. The one that caught his eye was of Kurt and Sebastian together, both of them smiling, neither of them wearing glasses. They were standing in front of a very modern looking white building, the Oberlin Conservatory according to the tag on the photo. Both of the pair looked genuinely happy. In the photo, the pair stood hip to hip, Kurt’s left arm out stretched and Sebastian’s right arm mirroring the gesture. Blaine had no way of seeing the just how low Kurt’s palm rested on Sebastian’s back. Nor did the camera capture the mischievous light in Sebastian’s eye at the moment the photo was taken.

Blaine went to the library and pretended to do his reading, all the while thinking about how to best impress Jeremiah. He was sure it was the only way that he might express himself to the man he knew he loved. He would need something big, something flashy, something that would take Jeremiah’s breath away. A part of him wondered if it was the right thing to do, but if the movies had taught him anything, it was that a big romantic gesture always paid off in the end for the hero. He began thinking about ways to make sure Jeremiah understood how much he meant in Blaine’s eyes. Eventually deciding on Robin Thicke’s “When I Get You Alone” he began humming to himself as he headed back to his bedroom. He checked Facebook quickly, and saw more photos posted from both Oberlin and Kenyon.

One shot in particular made him pause, but he couldn’t say why. It was of Kurt and Sebastian, standing in front of an old church on the Kenyon campus. In the photo, Kurt was leaning forwards, bending slightly from the waist while Sebastian turned and gave a surprised expression to the camera, kicking his left foot up. Their hands were locked with each other. It was the sort of silly picture that would be on other people’s Facebook walls, but not Kurt’s, at least Blaine didn’t think he had seen any photos where Kurt was that carefree. He started at the picture for a long moment, ignoring the comments beneath, and thus not seeing one that simply read “ _Me gusta,_ ” and the number of likes (including from Kurt and Sebastian) that comment received.

By dinnertime, the group of four returned and sat with each other. Deep in conversation, they ignored as Blaine entered. They did not even break their conversation when he sat at their table. For a long time, Blaine listened to Ciaran and Sebastian debate between the merits of Oberlin and Kenyon. Kurt and Ian seemed mostly content to make small comments every now and then, seemingly trying to goad the two combatants onward. Blaine tried to think of something, anything to say. Cooper had looked at either Oberlin or Kenyon, but Blaine couldn’t remember which. His brother hadn’t shared that much of his college decision making process with him. 

“I’m guessing that those two stole the show then?” Blaine eventually interjected. All four pairs of eyes turned to him. Sebastian’s showed something that Blaine hadn’t seen in them before. It was fatigue perhaps, but there was something else. If Blaine didn’t know any better he would have sworn it was disgust. 

“For those two, maybe,” Ian eventually volunteered with a small shrug, “but one of use didn’t like any of the three.” He gave a pointed stare at Kurt.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t like them,” Kurt explained, “I’ve just done small town Ohio before, and I’m not a fan. Also, Ada is less than a half hour from Lima, I don’t want to become a Lima Loser.”

“But if you had to choose?” Sebastian said turning back to Kurt, and Blaine didn’t need to see Sebastian to know that he was flashing a grin at Kurt. The tone in his voice was familiar to Blaine, it almost sounded like the tone that Sebastian had used when had had first introduced himself to Blaine. Why was he using it now? He already knew who Kurt was, so what was with that particular tone of voice.

“A gentleman should be allowed some secrets,” Kurt answered promptly before taking a sip of water. And just like that the pattern resumed amongst the four, with only Ciaran asking Blaine if he had started thinking about where he wanted to apply to college yet. Blaine had to stammer out a no. Kurt asked why he wasn’t thinking about his future. After all, high school and the Warblers wouldn’t last forever. That comment sent a shiver down his spine. Apparently Kurt hadn’t yet grasped the concept of once a Warbler, always a Warbler. Blaine thought that Kurt had blended well, and he experienced a wave of uncertainty after hearing Kurt’s comment about the future. He left quickly there after, wondering how Kurt could have had such a total transformation from the person he was last semester. Blaine shrugged it off and watched a movie before he fell asleep.

When Monday finally came Blaine decided to get some input about is plan to woo Jeremiah. The only other person he knew of in Dalton who had an appreciation for such gestures was Kurt, so Blaine made sure to keep an eye out for him. However, all through the day, Kurt seemed to be no more than a passing shadow. Whenever Blaine caught sight of the slightly built boy, he seemed to be gone as soon as Blaine blinked. It took until study hall for Blaine to find him. He was in a high back chair with a notebook in hand, head bent slightly down, all of his focus on the piece of paper before him.

“What are you working on?” Blaine asked.

“My schedule,” Kurt said, “trying to see if any of the Martial Arts Club competitions overlap with either Mock-Trial or Warbler events. Fortunately, so far it looks like I’m open for all three, I just might have to restrict myself to the weekly meetings of the French society.” Kurt then showed Blaine a complex chart that looked roughly like a calendar, filled with all sorts of short hand and highlights that boggled Blaine’s mind.

“Looks like you’re going to be very busy,” Blaine offered.

“This is what I get for slacking off last semester. Granted, there were extenuating circumstances, but things seemed to have cleared up,” Kurt said as he turned his focus back to his schedule.

“Can I borrow three minutes of your time?”

“You really can’t,” a voice from behind Blaine said. Blaine turned and saw Sebastian strolling down the hallway towards them. Consequently he missed Kurt lifting his head and offering Sebastian a genuine smile, one unforced and as intense as the light glinting off the snow. 

“Smythe, please, stop being so mean,” Kurt said, not quite chiding the other boy.

“I wasn’t mean, Hummel, I was honest. You’re spread thin enough as it is.”

“I still should have time for my friends.”

“You should, but not today, remember?”

“You mean… _Merde!_ ” Kurt said as he scrambled out of the chair. He began jamming things into his backpack with no order or reason.

“What’s going on?” Blaine asked.

“ _Shee-fu_ Kurt here forgot that he has an interview at Ohio State in about forty minutes,” Sebastian said. 

“I don’t have time for this now Smythe, but I do owe you,” Kurt said as he straightened his tie. Evidently he had finished placing everything into his bag.

“I’ll collect later,” Sebastian said with an audible grin, “but hurry your pretty little self up. We still meeting your friends later?”

“We should be, unless Mercedes and Rachel have canceled on us. It’s unlikely, they’ll do anything to get out of Lima,” Kurt said as he rushed past Blaine, turning and giving only a polite wave. “Text me later,” Kurt half yelled as he and Sebastian began to run down the hallway. Blaine was impressed that Kurt had begun to mix more of his McKinley and Dalton circles, but puzzled about why Kurt had chosen to introduce two of his ‘ladies’ to Sebastian. He supposed he could figure it out later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I speak neither French nor Spanish, I apologize for any missed accent marks or incorrect punctuation.


	6. Chapter 6

If Sebastian and Kurt had returned by dinner, Blaine didn’t see them. He spent the meal with Thad, David, and Wes, talking about possible opening numbers for Regionals. Suggestions ranged from “House of the Rising Sun,” to “Disturbia.” Wes mentioned things his older brothers had done when they had been on the Warblers and Thad mentioned a few collegiate a cappella groups that had YouTube channels that they might want to look over. Blaine was able to smile and nod, secure for a second with the knowledge tat at least Wes and Thad seemed to still favor him as a soloist. It was only from David that Blaine felt a thorn of doubt when he suggested three possible leads for a Queen’s “We Will Rock You.”

Following dinner, Blaine did his obligatory history and Spanish worksheets without much passion, as he had finally gotten a response back from Jeremiah suggesting that they might want to meet for coffee sometime. The thought of seeing his future boyfriend prevented him from being too focused. He was also distracted by another text from David. Much like the call he had gotten two weeks ago, it was rather brief, saying that Blaine should head to the largest Dalton Courtyard ASAP. Looking out of his bedroom window, Blaine saw snow falling, slowly, but heavily. He threw on his winter jacket, hat, and gloves, hoping his heavily stylized hair wouldn’t be ruined. 

He all but ran down the hallway and stairs to the first floor and opened the door facing one Dalton’s largest quad between three dorms and one of the old gyms. In the center of the open space were a pair of twin pine trees framed by a large circle of brown earth. On the far edge of the circle were two figures, the shorter standing behind the taller. They moved slowly around the two pine trees, and stopped occasionally, the shorter moving around the taller quickly and then back behind. Blaine blinked as a large flake of snow fell and his cheek near his eye. As soon as he had wiped it from his face, the pair came into view.

It was Kurt and Sebastian, both wearing pea-coats and earmuffs. Kurt had the stern expression that Blaine was learning to associate with the side of himself he had kept hidden so expertly from the Dalton community, or at least from Blaine. Sebastian’s torso was twisted so he faced the two pines in the center of the circle, his right arm crossing his body, and his left arm extended towards the center with a slight bend in it. Kurt said something quickly, and rapidly, just below the threshold of Blaine’s hearing and Sebastian stopped. Kurt moved around Sebastian’s body, making adjustments to his hands moving over the taller boy’s arms, chest, and thighs. When Kurt had finished, he stepped away and this time stood in front of Sebastian, showing him the posture. 

Sebastian said something, and even at this distance, Blaine heard Kurt give one of his high, almost unforgettable laughs. Blaine saw as Sebastian relaxed his posture and Kurt took a few steps from him. Blaine could feel his cellphone vibrate deep within one of the pockets of his jacket, but he didn’t dare take it out of his pocket. He watched as Kurt assumed a stance with his feet shoulder width apart, palms facing skyward. He stood like that as the snow fell around him and then he began moving. His hands pushed downwards and outwards as his wrists turned he raised his arms in twin circles his fingers now facing towards the earth. Then almost too fast to see his hands came to his center as Kurt bent forwards from the waist. 

Kurt’s hands swooped out to one side and then came back in as he straightened up, his hands shooting out like spears in a fraction of a second. Blaine watched in awe as Kurt’s body twisted, spinning through the falling snow, hands and feet creating small pathways through the air. Blaine was so focused on the way that Kurt moved that he missed the way Sebastian was looking at Kurt. He missed the soft smile on Sebastian’s face that was far from the predatory leer he had greeted Blaine with. Blaine also couldn’t see the details of Kurt’s face at this distance, and as such missed the softness in his features. While it wasn’t totally relaxed, it was a far cry from the total focus shown during the sword pattern. 

As Kurt moved from the circular walking he had demonstrated to Sebastian (and unknowingly to Blaine) into a deep split in which he rocked first right then left, his palms flying, Blaine had the feeling he was seeing something deeply personal. He knew he should look away. What Kurt was showing Sebastian, what they were doing beneath the sky as the snow fell, it was as intense, if not more so than the few seconds in which Blaine had touched Jeremiah’s hand. He knew he should stop watching and go inside, but he couldn’t. He watched as Kurt spun on one leg, both hands above his head as the snow spiraled though the air, as if it wanted to emulate the slight boy’s movements. Blaine’s breath caught in his as Kurt spun in towards Sebastian and there was less than an inch between Kurt’s right hand and Sebastian’s thigh. 

Kurt pulled back from that potentially dangerous position as he resumed what Blaine guessed was the ready posture. He didn’t dare stay outside a second longer and he retreated indoors. He took out his cellphone and looked at the screen. David had simply written “Awesome, isn’t it?” Blaine shot back a one-word response, his mind still tumbling. He climbed back upstairs and tried reading _The Tempest_. Outside of his window, snow continued to fall and he wondered if Kurt and Sebastian were still out there, drawing circles in the snow with their footprints. One of the things filling his mind was why he had read intimacy into what Kurt and Sebastian were doing? Why had he known it was something private, something between just them? He couldn’t figure it out. 

Blaine didn’t even try to talk to Kurt in Music Theory the next day. He was still trying to understand just why he knew he had witnessed something close and intimate. The class was a blur and when it came to an end, Blaine realized he had not even taken a single note. He let out a sigh of frustration as he packed up his supplies and was able to push himself through European History without any thoughts of Kurt or Sebastian, or worst of all, Kurt and Sebastian. Instead he began to try to think about what number he would lead the Warblers through at rehearsal today. 

When rehearsal eventually came, Blaine soloed in a rendition of “Bills, Bills, Bills” complete with some rather advanced dance moves. He felt pleased with himself and he suggested freely that it should be the opening number at Regionals. Only then did Sebastian raise his hand. Blaine felt a bolt of ice run down the vertebrae of his spine. While Kurt might have challenged traditions without knowing how to previously, Sebastian knew how to work within the system. Blaine felt his fist balling up.

“Warbler Smythe, you have the floor,” Wes said, and Blaine felt his heart sink. Why did Wes have to see that?

“My fellow Warblers and esteemed members of the Council,” Sebastian began, “while Warbler Anderson’s suggestion for an opening number might get us far, especially if we incorporate some that choreography,” he said with a nod to Flint. Flint smiled and gave a gracious nod. “However,” Sebastian continued after a moment’s pause, “Warblers Hummel, Li, and Marquette and I believe that one of the things that would get us to the Nationals would be to use genres that the Judges might not expect from an all male a cappella group.”

There was a pause that felt fatal to Blaine. How could the council possibly think that it was a good idea? The Warblers were all about tradition and this would spit in the face of it and all the Warblers who had come before. They had always gone far by adhering to pop and standards. Granted, it had been almost a decade since the Warblers had last made it past their Sectionals, but tradition was all that mattered. He waited for the rejection he was sure that would come, unaware that he was holding his breath.

“Could you give us more specifics?” Thad asked and Blaine would have sworn that his heart skipped a beat. Thad had always firmly been in his corner. It had been due to Thad’s influence that he had secured lead in the first place. While Wes might seem the most staunch guardian of tradition, it was Thad as the council secretary who held the most detailed knowledge of everything that had happened. 

“We are suggesting widening to include jazz, rap, metal, and country,” Kurt said as he stood next to Sebastian, “with the wide range of musical tastes among all the Warblers, we can find songs that will be easy to adapt. Also, we might want to incorporate more foreign language pieces. The Warblers have members who are fluent in French, Spanish, German, and Chinese. We can use songs from these languages or more to wow the judges. They won’t expect an all male choir that has traditionally restricted itself to English language pop songs to bust out a Chinese rap for example.”

“What you’re suggesting has never been attempted.”

“Which is why we think it might work,” Sebastian answered. Blaine was stunned at just how in sync the two seemed to be with each other. When had they had the time to figure this all out? How much time had the spent with each other? Blaine was so lost in his thought that he missed the council saying they would look over an arrangement in a week’s time. When the gavel finally fell and ended the meeting, Blaine stepped out, trying to collect his thoughts. He needed to speak to Kurt, to remind him about the fact that everyone wore a blazer. However, he couldn’t get near the other boy. Kurt, Sebastian, James Lee and Aaron Marquette had formed a tight knot and were heatedly discussing with each other in low whispers. With the ways their bodies were positioned, Blaine missed that Kurt’s hand rested on the small of Sebastian’s back.

The rest of the week passed with no real distinguishing characteristic. Blaine tried contacting Kurt via text, but instead of the full sentences he had grown used to before break, Kurt now offered short comments in reply. To every invitation to hang out or catch up during the week, Kurt offered a polite excuse. For a brief second, Blaine allowed himself to wonder if Kurt was trying to avoid him. However what would Kurt get out of that. On Thursday, he sent Kurt a short text asking if he had weekend plans. Kurt’s response was the longest one yet: ‘On Friday, seeing last game of the season at McKinley, have to show Finn my support. Saturday is the first DMAC competition.’

‘DMAC?’ Blaine sent back, trying to make sense of those four letters. It took a five minutes before Kurt responded, not that Blaine was counting.

‘Dalton Martial Arts Club. You can join me and Sebastian for coffee after.’

‘Sebastian is going to a DMAC thing with you?’

‘I asked him to come. He said he wants to see his shifu in action.’ 

Blaine said he would meet them after Kurt’s event and wonder why he hadn’t been invited to Kurt’s event. Wasn't he Kurt's best friend at Dalton? Had that much really changed over the break? Blaine tried to work out just how Sebastian had gotten so close to Kurt in two weeks and how Kurt had managed to extend his social circle so far in the time. It was as if Kurt had previously untapped springs of energy, or as energies that had previously been directed at one point were now being redirected. It couldn’t be that important though, Blaine had to think about how to persuade the council to make sure whatever happened with the styles of song they sung, he would keep his position as lead. After all, he did want to go to school to become a great singer, so the more experience he got, the more he could shine.


	7. Chapter 7

The weekend eventually came and Blaine decided on wearing his Dalton Uniform when he met Kurt and Sebastian at one of the better known coffee houses in Columbus’ Short North. Blaine went to the counter and ordered a medium drip. He scanned the inside of the brick building and spotted Kurt and Sebastian sitting opposite each other. Talking animatedly. Blaine saw only Sebastian gesticulating with his right hand. He missed just how close Sebastian’s left hand was to Kurt’s right hand. Both of their coffees rested on the table. Had Blaine been paying more attention, he would have noticed that steam rose from neither cup. He was too busy waiting for his order to be called. As soon as he was served, he headed over to their table.

“How did the competition go?” Blaine asked as he placed his mug on the table. He missed how both of the other boys at the table pulled their hands away from each other a little.

“Pretty well over all,” Kurt said with a small shrug.

“Way to undersell it _shee-fu_ ,” Sebastian teased. Kurt rolled his eyes and then looked at the boy across the table. Blaine turned his focus onto Sebastian, and as such missed the small smile Kurt gave him. 

“Just how well?” Blaine asked turning his eyes back to Kurt.

“Of the ten of us who competed, seven got top three finishes in open hand and weapons forms, and of those who competed in sparring two got first place in their divisions,” Kurt said.

“ _Shee-fu_ here got second in his division in weapon form and first in open hand,” Sebastian said. If Blaine didn’t know any better, he would have said there was affection in Sebastian’s tone.

“Congratulations Kurt,” Blaine offered with the best smile he could muster. Kurt smiled in return, but it was a softer smile. There was also a little bit of a flush on his cheeks and Blaine felt pleased to have put it there.

“I got lucky, I really need to step up my training if I want to have a chance at placing when we compete in Pittsburgh,” Kurt replied.

“You guys are competing in Pittsburgh?” Blaine asked.

“In about two months. It’s one of the biggest tournaments in the tri-state area. Ian and I are trying to see just how many people will want to compete and if we can get a bus for the event,” Kurt said. 

“You give yourself too little credit,” Sebastian interjected, “when you go to Pittsburgh, you’ll kick ass and take names.”

“I know just how many mistakes I made in my open hand form,” Kurt responded. 

“Where?” Sebastian questioned as he pulled out his phone. Blaine had to angle himself so he could look at the small screen. He couldn’t see well, and there was clearly someone in front of Sebastian when he had filmed it. He watched, twisting his neck, to see Kurt ball both of his fists slowly and within fractions of a second bring them both to his collarbone before circling them down to just below his ribcage. Whoever had sat in front of Sebastian made the next two-seconds impossible to see by standing and walking past the camera.

The next clear shot Blaine saw was of Kurt in something close to a deep lunge, right foot back and right hand extended in a fist with the tips of his left fingers touching toned biceps. When had Kurt begun to develop muscle, Blaine asked himself. The thought distracted him sufficiently to miss the next series of rapid-fire movements. When he had collected himself he saw Kurt in a deep stance, legs more than shoulder distance apart, his hands moving in perfect symmetry with each other, or so Blaine thought. “That’s one place,” Kurt said, and Sebastian paused the video, “my right hand was a good quarter of a second slower than my left.”

“How did you see that?” Blaine asked.

“ _Sure-fu_ here is a perfectionist, he sees faults in everything, even when they aren’t there,” Sebastian offered. Blaine missed the way Sebastian changed the pronunciation of the world, and the look that Kurt gave to the boy who was holding the phone. Sebastian pressed play again and Blaine saw Kurt jump and twist slightly in the air, his hands a blur before they shot out in two different directions, following each leg. Blaine watched in silent awe as the video continued, and when Kurt leapt and spun in the air, his body twisting, legs striking in flashing kicks before he fell to the ground on his side, Blaine felt his breath catch in his throat. Less than a second after Kurt hit the ground, his feet were moving in a series of lightning fast kicks before he rocked onto his back, pulling his legs to his chest, and then sprung to his feet with his hands hitting the ground. 

“There’s another spot,” Kurt said, pointing to himself in the video, “my back is too rounded. That’s more yoga than Southern Wushu.” 

This continued for another three minutes or so, with Sebastian stopping the video each time Kurt made a critical comment. Blaine couldn’t see whatever it was that Kurt and Sebastian had seen. Even thought the phone video was decent, there were still bits that Kurt said he had messed up on that the phone didn’t capture. Sebastian countered Kurt on more than a few points, but there were also segments where once Kurt made the comment, Sebastian backed up the video and watched again. Sometimes he did it two or there times before he finally offered an opinion. On one or two occasion, he even agreed with what Kurt said. Blaine stayed silent, listening to the way that Kurt and Sebastian spoke with each other, trying to see if Sebastian used the tone of affection he thought he had heard earlier. 

When the open hand video had been thoroughly dissected, Sebastian slid his phone back into his pocket and took a small sip of his coffee and grimaced. “Would be so much better with Courvoisier,” he said. Blaine turned and raised his eyebrows. As such he again missed the way that Kurt rolled his eyes at the tallest boy at the table. It wasn’t frustration, not completely.

“Just for that Sebastian, I won’t teach you how Tiger form,” Kurt said, and then lifted his coffee cup to his lips, concealing the grin that was spreading across his face.

“But, but, but,” Sebastian began and gave an obvious pout. Blaine would never have imagined hearing Sebastian Smythe upset, let alone see him pouting. Kurt’s high, seraphic laugh filled the space around them, and if Blaine had been paying attention he would have seen the appraising and appreciative looks that were aimed at Kurt from two college aged hipster sitting against the wall. He also would have noticed the way that Sebastian inched forwards, entering Kurt’s space with his shoulder tilted in, almost brushing Kurt’s biceps.

“Alright, alright, you can turn off the puppy dog eyes,” Kurt said with notes of both amusement and resignation in his voice. Sebastian gave a victory arm pump, and Blaine smiled at their antics. He missed Sebastian placing his hand next to Kurt’s elbow as it came down as he was busy checking his phone. He smiled when he saw the message from Jeremiah, confirming their meeting tomorrow.

“Someone’s getting laid,” Sebastian said with a teasing tone in his voice.

“Sebastian!” Kurt chastised, a flush crawling up his neck slightly.

“What? Blaine should be proud,” Sebastian reasoned calmly. Blaine felt himself flushing more than a little as his two friends discussed what they thought happened in his personal life. 

“I’m not getting laid,” Blaine eventually contributed, casting his eyes down and to one side, unable to look at Sebastian’s grin directly, “however I am totally in love with him and I am debating seeing if I an get the Warblers to help me serenade him around Valentine’s Day.”

“What’s his name?” Kurt asked, and there was genuine curiosity and perhaps a little excitement in his voice. Blaine missed a slight edge, a harsh quality at the end of the question. He also missed the way that Sebastian’s fingertips extended and brushed against Kurt’s elbow. He was too busy going through the pictures on his phone to find his favorite one of Jeremiah. He smiled when he came to the candid he had taken on the day he had met his future boyfriend. 

“His name is Jeremiah, he’s an assistant manager at the GAP at the Westerville Shopping Center. When we get married, I can get a discount. I’m going to serenade him around Valentine’s Day, catch him off guard, and make him mine,” Blaine said, feeling the smile spread across his face. He passed his phone to Sebastian, who in turn passed the phone to Kurt. 

“He certainly has a head of hair,” Kurt offered. Blaine missed the slight tightness that was in his friend’s voice.

“Gives Blaine something to hold onto when…” Sebastian began. Kurt silenced him with a look, and Blaine was thankful for the patented Hummel Bitch Stare (trademark pending). Kurt gave Blaine his phone back and Blaine looked again at the man he knew he loved. He smiled, and missed how Sebastian again brushed his fingers over Kurt’s biceps, this time giving his arm a gentle squeeze. He also missed Kurt’s opposite hand moving over the table and touching Sebastian’s knuckles gently. When Blaine looked up, he saw Kurt and Sebastian smiling at each other, and he presumed it was at some private thoughts they had about him and Jeremiah.

“Do you guys think I can persuade the Warblers to help me with this?’ Blaine asked.

“Honestly, I don’t think you have good odds,” Sebastian said with a small shrug.

“What do you mean?”

“According to Zach, one of the strictest traditions among the Warblers is about the appropriateness of performance venue. According to legend, the last time the Warblers performed in an informal venue, there was a pretty big accident, and this was back in the 1920s. You might want to double check with Thad or Wes on the details.”

“Also,” Kurt said, “are you sure that this is something Jeremiah would like?”

Blaine was floored by the question. It took him a second to compose his thoughts as he turned his whole focus on Kurt, missing the small, approving smile that Sebastian gave him. “Who wouldn’t love to be serenaded in public? It’s so romantic,” Blaine protested. He thought Kurt with his love of theatricality and romantic movies of all people would understand that.

“While it might be romantic for some people,” Kurt countered, “it’s not something everyone enjoys. There are more than a few videos on YouTube showing failed flash mob proposals. While you’re not asking the boy to marry you…”

“Especially because its not legal in Ohio yet,” Sebastian interrupted. Kurt nodded at that and took a small sip of his coffee before he continued. 

“As I was saying, you might not be proposing to Jeremiah, you could be outing him potentially. Not everyone is out at their place of work. Furthermore, the big romantic gesture only works if its something you know he wants. If he doesn’t you might not only embarrass him, but also yourself. If you drag the Warblers into this, then if it doesn’t go off well, then you’ve embarrassed them too. You can try talking to them, but before you do, make sure you know how Jeremiah would feel about such a public display,” Kurt concluded and finished his coffee.

“But I thought…” Blaine began.

“Anderson, not everyone shares your idea of what romance is,” Sebastian interjected. It was stated simply, plainly, and in a tone that made it clear he had said all that there was to say about the subject. “Come on Tiger,” Sebastian said, turning his focus back to Kurt, “Let’s get back to campus and you can show me the opening to that pattern.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Kurt said, smiling. Blaine missed the tone of gratitude in Kurt’s voice, trying to digest what the two boys had said. How could they not think what he was doing was a good idea? After all, wasn’t it clear he was the hero in this case?


	8. Chapter 8

Blaine spent the rest of Saturday trying to digest what Sebastian and Kurt had said to him. How could they possibly not see the grand gesture for all of its glory? Also, what did they know about love? According to bits of gossip he had gathered through the Dalton grapevine, Sebastian didn’t do relationships, and Kurt…well Kurt was far too innocent, far too naïve to know what love really was. He had at least thought Kurt would see the romance in singing to Jeremiah, but he had been shot down. Blaine shook it off, and when he went to bed that night, he thought of the smile he was sure to receive when he performed for the older man. 

Blaine woke early and made sure he jerked off at least twice before he got ready for his meeting with Jeremiah. Despite the smile on his face as he walked through the crisp winter air, a part of his mind rested on what Sebastian and Kurt had told him yesterday. Their comments lingered despite what Blaine told himself. When he sat down in the Starbucks, he resisted the urge to check his phone to see just how much longer he would have to wait for Jeremiah to show up. Instead he sipped his medium drip and reminded himself that the big romantic gesture always played out for the hero in almost every movie he had seen. His mind would give him no rest, and he could easily imagine Sebastian saying that real life wasn’t a movie.

“Sorry, I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long,” Jeremiah said as he sat across from Blaine, giving a polite grin. Blaine felt himself smile broadly.

“Not long at all, I’m just glad you found some time to catch up,” Blaine replied before he took a quick sip of the still hot beverage in an attempt to will his face to neutrality. 

“I’m just surprised you have so much free time. It wasn’t that long ago I was in high school. I remember most of my weekends being eaten up with homework or basketball practice, and I went to public school. At that prep school of yours, the load’s got to be at least ten times worse than what mine was,” Jeremiah offered with a smile.

“I think you over-estimate just how rigorous Dalton is,” Blaine said with a small smile, although he knew he was now far behind in both Spanish and History. He figured he would be able to catch up with those assignments as soon as got back to his dorm. If worst came to worst, he might be able to ask Kurt for some help with his work. After all, Kurt had been very willing to help him last semester, so he should be up for the same. Even with their small fight yesterday, he was at least one of Kurt’s closer friends at Dalton.

“I doubt it,” Jeremiah commented.

“Jeremiah, may I get your two cents on something?”

“Shoot.”

“Yesterday, two friends and I got into an argument over grand romantic gestures. They said not everyone was a fan, and I argued that the gesture would be a enough to win anyone over. What’s your opinion?”

“Personally, I agree with your friends,” Jeremiah began and Blaine resisted the urge to spit his coffee. 

“Why?”

“Well, for one thing, the grand romantic gesture to me seems selfish on the half of the person who does it. It’s a way of that person bringing attention to themselves. Also, it could really mess up someone’s workspace. My older sister, Sarah, lost her job because her at the time boyfriend organized a flash mob in the restaurant where she was waiting tables without letting her manager know. It disrupted the flow of service and one waiter got injured. Finally, it’s just not me. I get why some people might like that, but to me, I’d rather someone do something small and thoughtful. A grand romantic gesture seems more style than substance,” Jeremiah concluded and took a sip from his drink.

“What do you mean selfish? Making a fool out of yourself for someone you love, isn’t that selfless?” Blaine argued back.

“I’m not saying it can’t be selfless, if both parties involved in the grand romantic gesture know what’s going down. However to have one person spring it on another, that just seems like the person who sprung it making a desperate bid and trying to get a yes to whatever question they were going to ask. There would be a lot of social pressure on the receiver of such an action to say yes, and I don’t feel that’s right.”

The rest of the conversation was nowhere near as easy as Blaine remembered his previous conversations with Jeremiah as being. When they parted ways perhaps a half hour later, Blaine didn’t know what to think. He wanted to believe Jeremiah would act differently when such a gesture was directed at him. However, how could he doubt what he heard with his own ears? Hearing it though didn’t mean he understood it, and he fell into an uneasy sleep 

Class on Monday was a blur. He couldn’t bring himself to focus through a lecture on verbal conjugations in Spanish, nor could he pay attention Geometry. All of his plans had fallen through in the space of thirty minutes. How was he supposed to win over Jeremiah now? How was he supposed to show the other boy just how much he meant to Blaine? Had he been selfish for wanting to serenade him? How could Jeremiah not see such an action as selfless and romantic? He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts at lunch that he didn’t notice Kurt walking in, talking with both Xavier and Sebastian intently. He also missed that Sebastian had placed his arm over Kurt’s shoulder and Kurt had placed one arm around Sebastian’s midsection. Even if he had seen it, he would have thought there was nothing odd in it. The no-bullying policy allowed for students to be more openly affectionate with each other, and what was such a gesture between friends?

Only at the end of the day was Blaine able to pull himself together, and that was only by sheer force of will. He did the best he could on the homework he had been assigned, but he knew it was far from excellent. After a rapidly eaten dinner and further attempts to make his way through _The Tempest_ , Blaine decided to use the punching bags at the gym. He knew it might mark him as a member of the Dalton Fight Club, but he didn’t care, he needed to vent some of his frustration, and the only thing that would work was going full on with one of the punching bags. It would be better if he could really fight, but the next meeting wasn’t scheduled until Thursday night. Blaine just wasn’t that patient. 

After changing quickly he all put ran to the gym, ignoring the nip in the night’s air as he crossed through the open space. When he arrived, he saw from the corner of his eye Kurt and Sebastian in the yoga space again. He actually paused this time, looking at the two boys. This time both Kurt and Sebastian were wearing tank-tops and Blaine saw that Kurt really was beginning to show muscular definition. While he might not be as defined as Sebastian, there was more there then Blaine had assumed. Granted, from what he could see, Blaine guessed that Kurt was wearing either track pants or sweat pants compared to Sebastian’s athletic shorts, but this was still more of Kurt’s skin than Blaine had ever expected to see.

Sebastian was back in, what seemed to Blaine, a rather uncomfortable standing posture. Kurt was next to him and lifted his front leg effortless, his balance not shifting in the least as the leg left the floor and then came back down. Sebastian wobbled a little and Kurt ceased his motions and walked over to the taller boy. Blaine knew he was in danger of being discovered if he continued to watch as he currently was, but he needed to see more. It was like the exercise Kurt had done with Sebastian in the snow. There was something deeply intimate in the way Kurt adjusted Sebastian’s posture, about the way their exposed arms touched each other when Kurt made an adjustment to Sebastian’s arm. Blaine knew he should stop watching, but he really could not. 

Although he watched for what may have only been a matter of seconds, it felt longer to Blaine, much longer. He was tempted to compare it to a movie when time slowed for the protagonist who first noticed the person they were in love with. The thought shocked him. How could he love either Kurt or Sebastian? Despite the setback with Jeremiah, Blaine knew he still loved the older boy. He had to shake his head, and the physicality of the action dragged him back to the present and allowed him to head towards the treadmill for his warm up. He jogged slowly, the new emotions that had just blossomed in his mind preventing him from being fully present in the exercise. Once he got off, he headed over to the small boxing area of the gym.

Putting his hands in the boxing gloves, Blaine went through all the boxing exercises and strikes he knew as he wailed on the punching bag. When he finished, a bead of sweat running down his brow, he felt at least a little clearer. What he had experienced earlier was just a result of his frustration with Jeremiah, nothing more. After all, Kurt was too innocent to really be attractive, and while Sebastian was objectively very handsome, the older boy’s reputation made him unsavory. After all, who would want to ride the town bicycle?

When he exited the boxing area of the gym, he looked over to the space for yoga. Neither Kurt nor Sebastian were present and Blaine was relieved a little. He didn’t want to deal with whatever it was they had called forth in him. He returned to his room and was able to finish his geometry homework. That at least was a victory. He spent the rest of his night tacitly reading erotica. Before he went to bed, he relieved some of the frustration he had been feeling. However the image of Jeremiah bent over a counter, as Blaine had first seen him dueled with images he dared not give voice too. 

Through the next day, he tried to avoid Kurt and Sebastian as best he could. In Music Theory, he chose a seat far away from his usual position. That made no impact, as Kurt walked in and chose a seat near James Li. Blaine vaguely remembered that James was one of other Warblers Sebastian had mentioned for the mutinous idea. Blaine was curious about what James and Kurt might be discussing. Was it some of their arrangements for the Warblers later today? How could he see it? What would he say about it he saw it? He wanted to make sure it was up to the high standards of the Warblers after all.

However, the opportunity to see the arrangements never presented itself. When class ended, James and Kurt exited quickly and were met in the hallway by Damon Marquette and Sebastian. The four gathered quickly and then moved off in the opposite direction from the cafeteria. Blaine guessed that they were using the lunch period to fine-tune whatever they had been spending most of their week developing. He almost wanted to wish them luck. There was no way that they would be able to get the Warblers to buck with tradition. He had attempted it by suggesting new ties in competition when he had been appointed lead, and it had been promptly shot down. The same fate would befall whatever arrangement they had.

Blaine felt himself smiling as he was served something that was allegedly meatloaf, not fully knowing why. While he was sorry for the four, he was looking forward to normalcy returning to what was arguably the most important aspect of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I finally have my ending picked out, and I should be able to get to it within the next two chapters. In the next chapter, I admit to playing with time a little just so I can use a particular song for Kurt, Sebastian, James, and Damon. I hope everyone will be willing to forgive me. Also, the next two chapters, the final chapters may take a little bit longer for me to post as I have real life things that are eating my time and my energies. However don't worry. Ideally speaking, I should have everything finished by February 4th.


	9. Chapter 9

The Warblers meeting came and Blaine felt nervous energy run through him. When Wes banged the gavel, calling the meeting to order, Blaine sat down and tried to will his face to a mask of stillness and calm. The general chatter took a moment to still, and for Blaine, it was a moment too long. He needed normalcy to return to the Warblers, something that had been lacking since Kurt and Sebastian had cited tradition and used a duet in their auditioning process. His skin crawled in anticipation. The sooner normalcy was restored, the sooner things would return to the way that they ought to be. Then he would be able to talk to the Warblers and convince them to make his grand gesture and Jeremiah would accept it.

“Warblers Hummel, Li, Marquette, and Smythe, are you ready to make your presentation?” Wes asked after they had gone over a few general notes that no one needed to hear, at least in Blaine’s point of view. 

“We are,” Kurt said, “and Warblers Duval, Sterling, Barnes, and Stone have been kind enough to join us to give us a richer sound and to further demonstrate how some of these arrangements might best work.” Blaine was in awe as Nick, Jeff, and Trent stood and walked over to the four who were already standing. How could Nick not tell him about this? Granted, he hadn’t seen Nick recently, but he had thought that as a fellow member of the Dalton Fight Club, Nick would have had the decency to warn him about the betrayal to the social order he was committing. Blaine was too stunned to pay attention to Kurt as he elucidated further on what songs they had chosen and who would be soloing for which pieces. 

Blaine watched in the silence that followed Kurt’s explanation as the seven boys arranged themselves standing in a half circle. The first to step forward wasn’t one of the original four, but was Trent. Blaine was stunned at this. Trent had, to the best of Blaine’s memory, never wanted to be a front man. He had never auditioned for a solo before, at least not within Blaine’s memory. As Blaine went through all of the auditions he could remember, the boys in the back of the semi-circle began their part. It was a series of tones, moving from lowest (Damon) to the highest (Kurt) this continued for a moment before Trent sang in a voice clear, but tinged with deep pathos, “ _I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing that’s real_.” 

Blaine recognized the song immediately and was struck by just how much of himself Trent was putting into the song. While it wasn’t competition level, at least not in Blaine’s personal opinion, he was willing to admit that there was something deeply haunting in this performance. It was as if Trent had been called upon to sing a dirge, and in so doing, was mourning for everyone who could not mourn. Far from a traditional opening, number, Blaine was ashamed to admit to himself that he couldn’t reach such notes with such conviction if he tried. Whatever Trent had experienced, it gave him a connection to the world of the song that Blaine just didn’t have.

When the song ended, there was a polite round of applause. Blaine took the moment and scanned the room. He saw that there were more than a few Warbler who were dabbing their eyes. Blaine wondered what it said about him that he could not or would not cry. He had felt the song, felt Trent’s sorrow through it, but had not touched him, not in the way that it apparently touched a few others. Perhaps, he thought to himself, it was because he hadn’t had the sort of experiences the song talked about. He couldn't connect to it because he didn’t know what it was to experience the sort of loss the song portrayed. 

There was a moment of silence as the group rearranged themselves. Blaine expected either Kurt or Sebastian of stepping forwards, after all, weren’t they the ones who had plotted this whole fiasco? However, instead of either, James Li stepped forwards. Nick and Jeff stepped to his sides and began slowly beat boxing. It was a rapid four-four measure, and the tune was one Blaine didn’t recognize at first. The beat boxing lasted eight measures before the rest of the group began joining in doing low harmony. James inhaled and then began to rap in what Blaine thought was Chinese. He wasn’t able to guess the dialect though.

Despite the linguistic barrier, Blaine was stunned by James’ flow. The one time he had attempted rap, it hadn’t gone well for him. He had told Kurt about it shortly after Kurt had enrolled at Dalton. Had Kurt chosen such a piece to demonstrate Blaine’s weaknesses? Why would his friend do that to him? James stopped rapping and started singing, backed by Sebastian and Kurt singing in French. There was an eerie quality to the song. It sounded like something that would be part of a horror movie soundtrack, at least it did to Blaine. There was no way that the council would allow such a piece at a performance. After all, that was a way to lose. Blaine noticed that James had gone back to rapping. In his opinion James was a better rapper than he was a singer, but the song still showcased one of his weakest over all points, his inability to hold the necessary rhythm of rap.

When the song came to an end, Blaine was shocked to see Wes on his feet giving a standing ovation. He had never known Wes to be so openly approving of something. Also, he thought that Wes was Cambodian, not Chinese. Had he guessed wrong? He had never asked about Wes’ ethnicity, figuring it would have been rude of him to do so. Still, if he wasn’t Chinese, then how did he know the song? Blaine shook off such thoughts as the group shifted again. Blaine was further disappointed when Jeff stood at the front this time. If Kurt and Sebastian had organized this, then why weren’t they showcasing their own talents? After all, wasn’t that why they had done this thing in the first place? 

Blaine was distracted from such thoughts when Jeff growled out, “ _Hard Rock Hallelujah! The saints are crippled, on this sinner’s night. Lost are the lambs with no guiding light_.” The rest of the group had begun fast passed backing vocals, with Nick in particular showcasing his beat boxing talent by imitating an aggressive drum. This was yet another song with which Blaine was unfamiliar, however he saw more than a few heads nodding along to it. They either liked the pace of it, or knew what it was. Blaine wondered just how Kurt and Sebastian had been able to pull so much together in such a short time.

The song continued, and Blaine hated to admit it, but this was the sort of thing that he could see potentially doing well at competition. He guessed this had originally been a metal piece, and seeing an a cappella group be able to adapt a metal piece well, that would at least win points for musicality and theatricality. Hell, all that would be needed to make this a show stopper with the right kind of judges would be the correct choreography, and Blaine guessed from the way Flint was head-banging that he would be more than willing to help and put an end to the trusted ‘one-two, shuffle step’ that had been the mainstay of the Warblers for as long as Blaine had been the lead singer.

He was shocked from his reverie when he heard a deep, gravely, grating voice that sounded utterly demonic. His shock deepened when he looked to see Kurt standing in center with three boys behind him. Two had bent their bodies, extending their arms to either side looking like skeletal wings. The third stood directly behind Kurt and held up two fingers like horns. All the while Kurt spoke more than sang, “ _Wings on my back, I’ve got horns on my head. My fangs are sharp, and my eyes are red. Not quite an angel, or one that fell. Now choose to join us or go straight to Hell._ ” On the last word Kurt’s voice rose, ascending all of the counter-tenor’s impressive range. Kurt handed the microphone back to Jeff for the last chorus and Blaine was stunned enough that he didn’t notice his hands balling into fists. 

When this third song had ended, Blaine was certain the display had come to an end. Much to his amazement, Kurt and Sebastian stepped forwards. He waited, not fully aware that he was holding his breath. “Kurt and I know we can see sexy. You heard it the last time we sung together,” Sebastian began, and Blaine turned his focus to Kurt’s face. Kurt wasn’t blushing. The few times Blaine had attempted to discuss anything remotely related to sex with Kurt, he had always blushed. What had happened that he wasn’t blushing now? How was he so calm with being thought of as sexy?

“However,” Sebastian continued, “we chose this last song to showcase our ability to put chills through you. We propose this as a closing number, because there’s no way that anyone would want to follow this.” With that he handed the microphone to Kurt. There was a beat of silence. Blaine waited and let out his breath when Kurt belted, “ _Hold my hand. Ooh baby, it’s a long way down to the bottom of the river._ ” 

The song was unfamiliar to Blaine, but he couldn’t deny Kurt’s tone of command, or the haunting effect of Kurt’s voice fully unleashed. Around him, the other boys stepped and clapped, creating an otherworldly feel. It was a combination of Justin’s performance and Jeff’s. It had all the aura of menace that Justin’s held with some of the same show stopping power that Jeff’s had held. Blaine didn’t notice Sebastian moving forwards. However when Kurt sang, “ _If you get sleep or if you get none,_ ” Sebastian answered with, “ _The cock’s going to call in the morning baby_.” Kurt and Sebastian went back and forth like that until they came to the chorus where Sebastian faded back into the backing vocals. Following the second chorus, Kurt stepped back and Damon, Nick, and James stepped forwards and dis a small stepping routine. 

When the song ended, Blaine didn’t dare to not clap. He knew what he had just witnessed was powerful, perhaps even worthy of a place in the competition roster, even if it took away his chance to shine. He knew he would get more. After all, he had two more full years at Dalton, and next year, he was sure to get a seat on the council. Then he would be able to restore things to the way they ought to be, he reasoned to himself. He missed the way that the council deliberated with each other, and the excited tones of their low whispering. He couldn’t miss it though when Wes finally spoke, announcing that Warblers Hummel, Li, Marquette, and Smythe had proved their point and that the Council would do their best to increase their song selection, and perhaps the song Warblers Hummel and Smythe had just used could find its place in regionals.

Blaine was so caught up in what Wes was saying, fearing that he had lost his chance to lead a show stopping, eye-catching number that he missed the way that Kurt and Sebastian smiled at each other. If he had been paying attention, he would have seen it was the sort of smile that was meant for one other person, and one alone. It was a private smile, one that was shared between people who were more than friends, or perhaps fast on their way to becoming such. It was the sort of smile that was often accompanied by the holding of hands. While Kurt and Sebastian didn’t do that, Kurt did allow himself to drag his thumb over Sebastian’s knuckles gently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, the penultimate chapter. As I warned, there was a temporal incongruity with the last song, so please forgive me. Included for your pleasure are not only the links for the songs I had the boys sing, but (where possible) the a cappella versions of those songs. Trigger warnings (violence, kidnapping, death) apply for the second song's music video.
> 
> Songs:  
> "Hurt", Johnny Cash, 2002  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlwFx0o4lQg
> 
> "Sha Shou", JJ Lin, 2009  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_roMZxr_JcY
> 
> "Hardrock Hallelujah", Lordi, 2006  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX8NerpYwBA
> 
> "Bottom of the River", Delta Rae, 2012  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIlY9bhPKbI


	10. Chapter 10

After the meeting, the rest of Blaine’s week passed without him being too aware of anything. Even when he fought on Thursday night, he was only half aware of what happened. Perhaps that was why he didn’t put in his best performance at the fight club. He texted both Kurt and Jeremiah, trying to see what each boy would be doing this weekend. Kurt responded first, saying something about how Sebastian and he would be working a Mock Trail event. Jeremiah texted back that he would be spending time with some guy named Simon. Blaine tried to remember if Simon was someone that Jeremiah had mentioned previously, but he honestly couldn’t recall.

The weekend and following week passed without much distinguishing it. During the Warblers meeting, the only exciting thing that happened was that the council agreed to Blaine singing “Raise Your Glass” by Pink as the opener to their set with some new choreography. They figured that the new arrangements that would follow such (for the Warblers anyway) a conventional choice would help push them future in their goal of reaching a national ranking. Blaine didn’t object, at least he kept lead for something, and that showed the council still valued him. 

February came arrived as it often did in Ohio, with unforgiving cold, bitter, winds, and trace amounts of snow. On night, he got another text from David, saying that Kurt and Sebastian were out in the falling snow again, doing that circle thing again. Blaine decided not to see it. He had already borne witness once. Why would he need to see it again? He didn’t need anything more to cloud his head. He needed to focus all of his mind on how he would win over Jeremiah. Kurt was actually the one to propose a solution when he stood in front of the Warblers and suggested a Lonely Heart’s Club Dinner at Breadstix.

“What is your rationale for such an action Warbler Hummel?” Thad asked.

“One, it would help get the name of the Warblers out there. My old show choir did a lot of public performances, and if we want to draw a crowd outside of Dalton students, faculty, alumni, and parents, we need to do some outreach. Two, it would help us think on our feet. The more venues we perform in, the better it will be for us for whatever challenges we might face in the future. While Breadstix might not be the most formal of all venue choices, it still has enough respectability. Three, I figure that more than a few of us are either just out or a relationship, forever alone, or between 20 minute relationships,” he paused and directed a glare at Sebastian. Sebastian rolled his eyes and blew Kurt a mocking kiss. Kurt shook his head at such the gesture. “And finally, this would be a way of showing that we bare no ill will towards some of our competition. By performing on New Directions’ turf, so to speak, we show that we’re open and willing to be good sports.” 

The council debated briefly before accepting. The rest of the practice was spent going over possible arrangements before deciding on “Silly Love Songs,” “You Belong With Me,” and “Unchained Melody.” Blaine was too pleased to be offered the lead in “Silly Love Songs” to notice just how Kurt looked at Sebastian when Kurt was offered the lead in “You Belong with Me.” He did notice however just how thrilled Trent was to be offered the lead of “Unchained Melody”. However considering the amount of feeling Trent was capable of putting into a song, Blaine wasn’t too upset. Also, this wasn’t a competition level performance, whoever led was unimportant. He could surrender such a minimal spotlight.

As soon as the meeting was over, Blaine was on his phone, texting Jeremiah and asking him if he might be interested in seeing him perform. Although it might not be the flash mob he had intended, it would still get the job done and be enough of a gesture to wow the older boy into becoming his boyfriend. Blaine smiled to himself at the thought all through dinner, and he didn’t quit smiling until he began to work on his short composition for Spanish 3. He texted Kurt, trying to see if his friend might be able to help him, but Kurt texted back something about working with Sebastian on an essay in AP French 4. Blaine was a little disappointed that he couldn’t get Kurt’s help, but the short prompt didn’t count for that much.

It took until Friday morning for Jeremiah to respond to Blaine’s text. It was fatally short: ‘Sounds fun. Simon and I will be there.’ The name Simon again, Blaine thought to himself and tried to go over each of the dates he had been on with Jeremiah. He could not, for the life of him, remember Jeremiah mentioning a Simon. He guessed that Simon must be a family member from out of town who was visiting. He texted back, “Awesome you’re bringing your fam.” Blaine didn’t have to wait long for the text that turned all the blood in his veins into ice. 

‘Simon’s my boyfriend. You didn’t think we were dating, did you?’ Blaine had to sit down to slow the swiftly spinning room. How could Jeremiah have a boyfriend? How had Jeremiah not told him about having a boyfriend? Had Blaine not been clear when he had asked Jeremiah to hang out? Had he truly misread all of Jeremiah’s grins, his casual pats of Blaine’s shoulder? How had Blaine managed to misunderstand everything so thoroughly? How had such a fantasy come about in his head? With shaking fingers he texted back a quick, ‘No way. See you guys then.’ He turned his phone off, to prevent any further earth shattering revelations.

Instead of tagging along with Jeff, Nick, and David to see some dumb movie followed by a trip to the food court, Blaine spent most of the weekend in his room, watching YouTube playlists of breakup anthems, and sneaking to the dining hall to gorge himself on either ice cream or frozen yogurt. He tried to run off his frustration, tried to sweat out his sorrow in the gym briefly on Saturday afternoon, but it did nothing for him. He wondered how he had let himself see so much that was not there, that hadn’t ever been there apparently. Was he really that foolish?

Monday was one of the worst days when he was given two pop quizzes in geometry and chemistry, subjects that were far from his strongest. He knew he would be lucky if he got more than a C on either, and the feeling of failure, both personal and academic, led him to sitting by himself at both lunch and dinner. Such a feat was not easy, but he needed the space, at least that was what he told those who asked him what was going on. He was grateful that his friends were willing to support him, but he shouldn’t need their support. He shouldn’t be where he was, he thought to himself. However he was losing some of his solos, had lost Jeremiah without ever really having him, and had just done abysmally on two quizzes. 

Tuesday came and Blaine waited through the day, hoping that he would have the chance to lead the Warblers in either “You’re so Vain” or “I Heard it Through the Grapevine.” While the songs weren’t perfect for his situation, they would allow for him to give voice to his wounded heart. He was so focused on the appeal he would make that he missed the way Kurt was smiling to himself when he entered Music Theory. He also missed the slight blush that climbed over Kurt’s face when Ciaran asked him a question. The blush was as much an answer as any words could have been. Finally, he missed the smile that spread over Kurt’s face in response to something Ciaran said. It was the same sort of smile Blaine had missed earlier, the one Kurt had shared with Sebastian during their little coup. 

When Warblers practice finally came, Blaine didn’t have a chance to speak. The entire council was now beginning to get into competition mode, and the focus was on new choreography. The entire practice was spent doing counts, making sure the movement matched the music, and that they were able to synch feet and arms as they moved. Blaine was stung by the inability to express himself. Shouldn’t the council give him that much? After all, he was still the star, wasn’t he? For a second, he almost wished he was in a place like McKinley, where the primary lead could hijack a meeting, at least according to Kurt. However, there was no way that the New Directions would get very far, Blaine thought to himself, there was too much infighting, and a Dalton diploma had to weigh more than one from some public school in Allen County. 

Perhaps it was the stinging in his chest that drove him to Kurt’s room after dinner. He would have headed there after practice, but he wanted time to collect himself. Whatever he said to the counter-tenor, Blaine wanted to make sure that Kurt understood just how deeply Blaine had needed today to be about him. Kurt had prevented that. He would have gone to Sebastian’s room, but he thought it unlikely that Sebastian was the mastermind between the two. He also thought it was unlikely that Sebastian was still in his room. He was probably at some gay bar or other, at least if rumor was to be believed. With his mind focused on the task ahead, Blaine marched down the Dalton hallways. He was so bent on what he needed to say, on how he needed to act, that he missed the tie hanging loosely from the knob of Kurt’s door. Instead of knocking, Blaine turned the knob and pushed, going through his diatribe for the fourth or fifth time in his head.

What he saw drove all breath, words, and thoughts from him instantly. He a bared porcelain back with a few freckles, and touching that back were two slightly tanned hand. Kurt turned, his eyes flashing a combination of anger and embarrassment. Sebastian angled himself so that Blaine could see his face and some of his exposed chest. “For the love of god Anderson,” Sebastian half shouted, “don’t you know what a tie around the door means?”

“Sebastian,” Kurt shot back quickly as he swung his leg as if he was dismounting a horse. He then glared at Blaine. “Whatever it is you might want to talk about Blaine,” Kurt began, “it surely can wait until later. Right now, my boyfriend and I would very much like to finish what we were doing.” Blaine nodded, stunned into silence, and allowed himself to be ushered out of the room. It wasn’t until he heard the door close and lock behind him that he was able to process what Kurt had said. Sebastian was Kurt’s boyfriend? When had that happened? How had that happened?

Blaine half stumbled back to his own room and took out his phone. He texted Wes quickly, with a simple question ‘Did you know Kurt and Sebastian are dating?’ He waited less than a minute for Wes to shoot back ‘About time. I won the pool.’ The room seemed to spin around Blaine, how had he missed this? Hadn’t Sebastian tried flirting with him? How had he chosen Kurt? Blaine didn’t know and was unable to get the thought of two shirtless boys from his mind and all that they might have been doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well everyone, this is the end. I thank you for sticking with me for so long. I hope you've enjoyed this. I may post a companion piece later, but until then, I wish you all well.
> 
> Sincerely yours,
> 
> Valravnsown


End file.
